This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Of all the moral war mementos and capitalist wreckage. It’s still astounding to see the silencing and neutering of the American press.  

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

The press speaks for those who pay it to speak. They only want to talk about the successful strikes on Iran but with no mention of the Iranian strikes on the US Embassy in Baghdad. Casualties? There is something perverted, about warping the news to fit the truth. To overtly omit unpleasant events from the public’s attention.  The administration is peddling the story that this thing is almost over. But if Tehran can still hit Baghdad with two missiles. This thing is not over; both sides are delivering ordinance. But the media parrots the administration and doesn’t ask a lot of fool questions. It’s unpatriotic to ask questions. “The man’s working his ass off, and you want to pester him with questions? Now? Can’t you see how busy he is?”

Pete Hegseth? You couldn’t beat the truth out of him with a Louisville Slugger. He might could sell used cars or phony stock swindles. A life insurance salesman on meth. Selling a line of exaggerated  statements and hyperbolic behavior. I bet Jim Carrey could do a great Pete Hegseth imitation. You can take the boy out of Fox News, but you can’t take The Fox News out of the boy. You see, Fox trained him to act like that. Now, with the big job, he feels compelled to do “more” of it. If a little is good, then a lot is better, right?

In Pete’s defense, it’s hard to be forthcoming when it’s not going as planned. This was supposed to be done and over with. Chalk up another one for the Empire. They’ve kicked a warm turd, and it’s stuck on their shoes. There’s not supposed to be a day 14. Whatever the military has been doing either isn’t working or has stopped working. Sure, you reduced Iranian attacks by 90% but that last ten percent seems to be a problem. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. On one end are burning ships who tried running the gauntlet. At the other end, are 108 Tankers waiting to fill up and leave. They have customers waiting and ports of call.

Already Mr. Trump’s “excursion” has no end in sight. From days to weeks to months. And now? And now, they don’t want to talk about it. “We’re winning! We’re way ahead of schedule! We don’t know when it will be over, but soon! Stop asking so many questions! Are you unpatriotic or something?” Just brief snapshots of what is going on. No continuity or inquiry. Just reporting what happened without why it happened. And for god’s sake don’t mention how unpopular the war is. The war just is like the weather. We’re at war with Iran, it just is.

Never mind why, it just is. Don’t ask why we are at war with Iran or what our goals are for this war. What constitutes a successful campaign? Either they consider us unworthy of being told the truth or they are too embarrassed by it themselves. They’ve screwed the pooch and they can’t be forced to admit it. They’ve badly misjudged their opponent. And now, there is no way to unkick the turd. Stopping Iranian missiles doesn’t open the Strait back up and that is what is important. That’s holding up the world economy. They’re already talking about fuel shortages in some places. All of these troubles and burdens placed upon the backs of millions of people without a simple word about why? Why did we have to turn the world economy upside down? Don’t we deserve to know why?

Who planned this? What was the original goal? How did they not expect Iran to close the Strait? How do they climb down from this ledge? The unaccountable organs planned this. Always certain their assessments are correct. But now; they’re stuck. How can the great Satan ever back down to Iran? The Strait must be opened either through war or negotiation. And war has failed, and that leaves negotiations and now time is on their side. The freight moves when they say it does, not us.

It’s a massive failure by the Trump administration equal to invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. So like anything this administration fucks up, they simply stop talking it. About the air tanker crash or the rocket attacks on embassies or the muddy hole in the ground that used to be the East Wing of the White House. Just like Winston Smith dropping unpleasantries down the memory hole. Rewriting the news where defeats are now victories and we win every battle. John Wayne riding Trigger with a Marlboro in one hand and a Budweiser in the other!

A manufactured reality and made for TV, TV. The Defense secretary is interviewed by a sportscaster. The Defense secretary is a sportscaster. Fox News, White House, Fox News. Trained monkeys in suits working themselves up from the bottom. It’s very lucrative, they say, if you have the stomach for it. You have to do what they say and read only what you’re told to read. Don’t ask questions! And if you do, don’t ask anything serious. “Where did you buy those shoes?”

King Midas Muffler has a new hobby. Trump is now passing out shoes and guessing shoe sizes. Little Marco Polio appeared in his new shoes two sizes too big. Just go to the store and buy the right size shoes, right ? But that is the type of nonsense we see through the crack in the door. So afraid of this man, they are too scared to exchange their shoes. Treasury Secretary and man afraid of his own shadow Scott Bessent had to discontinue an interview because the President needed him, right away. “Hey Scott, what was that actor’s name in that movie? How are those Oxfords treating you?”

It is not just what I see that bothers me but what I can assume by what I see. What’s the most common reason for people to lie? Shame or failure. So that’s why they lie. If it were going well, they would have no reason to lie. They would fill my screen with flyovers and victory parades brought to you by Amazon. I bought a time machine and they said it wouldn’t go forward.

“[we are] going to continue to fight communism. Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. That is what some people would like to do. We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat.” ― Harry S. Truman